GUWAHATI: The United States has charged a former Indian intelligence officer – Vikas Yadav – for allegedly directing a plot to slay a Sikh separatist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who advocates for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh state that would be carved out of India.
The plot, however, was thwarted.
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The US Justice Department indictment claimed that Vikas Yadav was a former officer in India's Research and Analysis Wing (RA&W) spy service.
The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said on Thursday that it had registered "murder-for-hire and money laundering charges" against Vikash Yadav for trying to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, according to reports.
The indictment of Yadav, for the first time, implicates the Indian government directly in the attempted assassination of a dissident.
The development comes after Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national also charged in the case, was extradited to the US from a prison in Prague earlier this year.
The FBI has accused Indian agents of involvement in an assassination attempt on Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen, saying Pannun was targeted for exercising his "First Amendment rights" to free speech.
“The FBI will not tolerate acts of violence or other efforts to retaliate against those residing in the U.S. for exercising their constitutionally protected rights," said FBI director Christopher Wray in a statement.
India has labelled Pannun a terrorist, though he denies the allegation, claiming to be an activist advocating for Khalistan.
According to the US indictment, "In or about June 2023, in furtherance of the assassination plot, Yadav provided Gupta with personal information about the victim, including the victim’s home address in New York City, phone numbers associated with the victim, and details about the victim’s day-to-day conduct."
In response to Yadav's indictment, Pannun said the attempt on his life on American soil was a "blatant case of India's transnational terrorism, which has become a challenge to America's sovereignty and threat to freedom of speech and democracy."